Staff

Stefanie Spear

Stefanie is founder and CEO of EcoWatch. She has been publishing environmental news for more than 25 years.

Stefanie is dedicated to publishing news that educates and motivates readers to become engaged in their community, adopt sustainable practices and support strong environmental policy to protect human health and the environment.

Stefanie is president of Expedite Renewable Energy, a consultancy company that works with local businesses interested in investing in solar and wind projects. She works on energy policy on the local, state and federal level.

Stefanie is on the advisory board for Lake Erie Waterkeeper and GreenCityBlueLake Institute.

David Bauer

David is the director of operations of EcoWatch. He has more than eight years of experience in the business community with work ranging from start-ups, Fortune 500 companies and firms on Wall Street.

A native of New York City, David is passionate about the role that business plays in preserving our planet and is especially interested in the advancements in renewable energy and sustainable business.

David holds a BS from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Cole Mellino

Cole is EcoWatch’s executive assistant. He believes that climate change and environmental destruction are, in the words of Bill McDonough, “intergenerational remote tyranny.” He is excited to be a part of the movement that is liberating us from the tyranny of extraction and destruction through regeneration and renewal.

He thoroughly enjoyed living and learning in DC, where he attended American University. Most of all, he loved studying abroad in Costa Rica, where he explored volcanoes, beaches, rainforests and rivers. After graduating, he headed west to do a farmer training program for a year in Reno, Nevada.

Now back in Cleveland, he is excited to rediscover his hometown. He enjoys being in the great outdoors and staying active. He especially loves to hike, ski and play the piano.

Lorraine Chow

Lorraine is a freelance writer for EcoWatch. Her journalism career began in New York City, where she received a M.A. from NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and where she worked at several entertainment and lifestyle publications, including the New York Post’s Page Six.

She found a love for environmental journalism after wandering into an ecological conference in Minneapolis in 2013. She’s since been published on a whole range of green topics for NationSwell.com, from sustainable fashion to photovoltaic panels.

A native Angeleno, Lorraine is a perpetual transplant who has lived in Japan, England and now in South Carolina, where she once preached against Solo Cups at a tailgate (and thinks that’s why no one’s invited her to another ever since). She tweets @LorraineLChow.

Katie Levans

Katie is a full-time marketer and part-time freelance writer and food blogger from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Katie has a Master of Science in Human Nutrition and is most interested in food accessibility, food politics and finding ways to make healthy eating easy and approachable. In her free time you’ll find her practicing yoga, exploring new restaurants and developing recipes for Honeystuck. Follow: @katie_levans

Radha McLean

Radha is a contributing writer for EcoWatch. Radha has 15 years of experience in publishing as an editor, writer and author, and is now translating that experience to communicate her true passion: making eco-friendly lifestyle choices to protect our health and the planet.

Radha grew up as a hippy in rural Hawaii, where she was taught from a young age to eat a plant-based diet, and make nontoxic, holistic lifestyle choices. Radha went on to write about health and medicine for medical publications in New York City before self-publishing the pregnancy guide and cookbook The Green Pregnancy Diet: Healthy Eating Choices for Mommy, Baby and the Planet, in 2009. She has a bachelor’s degree in literature from UC Santa Cruz, and a master’s degree in journalism from NYU.

Radha now lives in suburban New York, where she blogs about eco-parenting at SweetBeanHome.com.

Anastasia Pantsios

Anastasia briefly considered being an environmental lawyer before getting her M.A. in theater to become a lighting designer. Instead, she became a journalist and photographer, specializing in music.

She spent the ’80s writing a music column for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and shooting rock musicians like Kiss, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Tina Turner and U2, photos which appeared in books, on record jackets and in newspapers and magazines like the New York Times and Rolling Stone. In the ’90s she transitioned to writing for alternative newsweeklies, covering and photographing news stories, music, the arts and food.

In addition to being an EcoWatch reporter, Anastasia covers music concerts for Cool Cleveland and contributes to Edible Cleveland. Anastasia is a devoted organic vegetable gardener who has been a vegetarian for nearly four decades.

Todd Hamilton

Todd is EcoWatch’s web developer. He has been building and fine-tuning websites for more than 10 years with special emphasis on the WordPress platform. He has worked on a diverse range of websites including those for internet start-ups, authors, publications, web communities and more; giving Todd a focus on creating web experiences that are intuitive and valuable for visitors.

Todd also has extensive experience working with start-up businesses in the capacity of product manager which gives him a particular sensitivity to users needs. In addition to his work for EcoWatch, Todd is building products and implementing branding for event technology company EventHero.

When not kicking website tires, Todd enjoys playing tennis, hiking and working on home renovation projects.

Laura Hurst

Laura Hurst is the director of the EcoWatcher internship program.

She is a senior undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University double-majoring in Environmental Studies and International Studies. Laura spent last summer as an intern for the City of Cleveland’s Office of Sustainability.

New to the world of environmental journalism, Laura hopes to pursue work in storytelling and reporting to spread the message of environmental awareness and stewardship. In the meantime, she enjoys traveling, painting and attempting to perfect the art of windowsill gardening.

James Wakefield

James is EcoWatch’s social media intern.

A UK citizen, he received his BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of Southampton in 2013, and has previously volunteered with Young Friends of the Earth UK.

James currently alternates his time working for a call center in the morning and EcoWatch in the afternoon. He co-runs a blog on WordPress and can be found on Tumblr and twitter @S0cialEcologist.